Issue Thirty-One: Contributors

Asha Anderson is a poet, traveler, photographer, and sometimes artist currently splitting her time between Portugal and America’s Pacific Northwest coast.

Ben Banyard lives in Portishead, near Bristol, where he writes poetry and short fiction. He’s the author of a pamphlet, Communing (Indigo Dreams, 2016) and a full collection, We Are All Lucky (Indigo Dreams, 2018). His next collection, Hi-Viz, will be published in 2020. He blogs and posts mixtapes here.

Patrick Deeley is a poet, memoirist and children’s writer. His seventh collection, The End of the World, recently appeared from Dedalus Press.  He is the 2019 recipient of the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Poetry Award.  His best-selling memoir, The Hurley-Maker’s Son, published by Transworld, was shortlisted for the 2016 Irish Book of the Year Awards.

Berni Dwan’s poems have been published in Poetry Ireland Review, The Galway Review, Cránnog, Irish Times New Irish Writing, A New Ulster and StepAway Magazine among others. Her first collection, Frankly Baby, was published by Lapwing Poetry in 2018. She performed her one-woman show, Unrhymed Dublin, in the Smock Alley Theatre 2016 Scene and Heard Festival. In 2017, she won second prize in the Jonathan Swift Creative Writing Awards. In 2019 she was shortlisted for the Anthony Cronin International Poetry Award. Her show The Seven Ages – Like It or Not will feature in the Smock Alley Theatre 2020 Scene + Heard Festival.

Richard W. Halperin has four poetry collections out via Salmon/Cliffs of Moher, and eleven chapbooks out via Lapwing/Belfast. The most recent are, respectively, Catch Me While You Have the Light (2018) and Sunday Visits (2019).  His work is part of University College Dublin’s Irish Poetry Reading Archive.

Ceinwen E Cariad Haydon lives in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, and writes short stories and poetry. She has been widely published in web magazines and in print anthologies. She was Highly Commended in the Blue Nib Chapbook Competition (Spring, 2018) and won the Hedgehog Press Poetry Competition ‘Songs to Learn and Sing’. (August 2018). She graduated with an MA in Creative Writing from Newcastle University, in 2017 and is now developing practice as a creative writing facilitator with hard to reach groups. She believes everyone’s voice counts.

Dominic James lives in the South West and follows poetry meetings up and down the Thames River Valley. Recently published in Poetry Bus and The Journal his collection, Pilgrim Station, is available from SPM Publications. His website can be found here.

Laura Sweeney facilitates Writers for Life in central Iowa.  She represented the Iowa Arts Council at the First International Teaching Artist’s Conference in Oslo, Norway.  Her recent poems appear in Pilgrimage, Potomac Review, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Harpur Palate, Ithacalit, Saint Katherine Review, Amethyst Review, Descant, Qwerty, and the anthology Vanguard: Exercises for the creative writing classroom.  Her recent awards include a residency at Sundress Publication’s Firefly Farms, and a scholarship to attend the 2019 Sewanee Writers Conference.

Gina Williams is a journalist, photographer, former firefighter, and gardener. She’s a Pacific Northwest native and can often be found rambling in the Oregon Outback, volunteering at the community garden, or on assignment in a far-flung location. She lives and creates near Portland, Oregon. Williams is a Pushcart Prize nominee for poetry and founder of Plein Air Poetry Northwest, a nonprofit organization supporting literary arts and environmental activism. Her writing and visual art have been featured most recently by River Teeth, Okey-Panky, StepAway Magazine, Carve, The Sun, Fugue, Palooka, Boiler Journal, Whidbey Art Gallery, Black Box Gallery, and Great Weather for Media, among others. Her full-length poetry collection, An Unwavering Horizon published by Finishing Line Press, is now available for pre-order and will be distributed in May 2020.

RM Yager is a retired nurse who writes for those who have no voice, are marginalized or are at risk. She has been writing for over 50 years.